Monday, June 18, 2012

Introduction:

Fortune Kitty & Chi.

You stick on whatever surface you hit
unless it is unique like metal or glass.

The Amazon Appstore gives away one paid app per day. If this is news to you, where have you been for the last year? This game is the free app of the day for 6/18/2012. Now, the free apps of the day vary in quality or at least in my level of interest. But when I saw the title I did a double take. It was so ridiculous I had to set aside time just to play it. It was the right call. This game is so strangely fun and amusing it has what it takes to be a hit! This is a game designed for casual gaming. Much like Angry Birds, Cut the Rope and Where's My Water, this game is designed on the simple user interface that makes the game fun and easy to play for users at all levels.

Some planks rotate, some moves\
up & down or horizontally.

The Premise:

You are To-Fu. You are a little ninja to-fu that must collect Chi and get to the Fortune Kitty (a pink fortune cookie). It is really fun and funny.

Spikes kill... but in a cute way...

Metal makes To-Fu bounce
rather than stick to the wall.

The Game Play:

The game has the basics for making a good, simple game. All you need to do is touch To-Fu and pull the character towards the area you want him to fly. The objective of this is to move him through obstacle courses. The expressions on his face as you stretch him and watch him fly is just wonderful! There are minimum moves you can try to shoot for to accomplish the obstacle course. You can also collect little blue spheres called Chi. To finish the course you must get the Fortune Kitty. It is so simple and easy. At the same time it is challenging at points. The obstacles are varied and entertaining.

Some buzz saws are stationary.

Other buzz saws are mobile.

Impatient Much?

Bricks crumble a little after you touch them.

If playing through the levels is just too tedious for you, there are a couple in app purchases for $0.99 each available to you. One unlocks all 100 levels contain in the game. This is a wise move on the part of the developers because it isn't necessary for the game, but the option is great IF you want to move faster. The other is called the Golden To-Fu and when you launch To-Fu it makes it so he flies to all the Chi and gets to the Fortune Kitty in a single move. It is also $0.99. Both in app purchases works on multiple devices so you get more bang for your buck. No need to buy them once for each device you have.

Maturity Rating:

This app should be rated as E for Everyone. The game contains nothing that would qualify it for an other rating.

Final Assessment:

This app is available for free until a little after 12 AM Pacific Time. After that it will be $0.99. In either case I suggest it as a great casual game. It is well thought out and executed game. It deserves a 3 out of 3 Triforce rating. It is currently only available through the Amazon Appstore,. The Google Play version is a Free Ad-supported version. The iOS version is also available in an Ad-supported Free version.

Introduction:

Zombies have been on my mind. It may have something to do with me being friends with Dr. Bishop, an English professor who has published a scholarly work on zombies. Or maybe it's because of my zombie themed children's book I've written and that is in the process of being illustrated. Also, I have recently posted an article on my blog Something Geeky This Way Comes. Either way, zombies are everywhere and I can't seem to escape them! So one can see that when confronted with another Zombie Apocalypse game I had to jump on it.

The Story:

Your standard story line for a Zombie Apocalypse game. You are, as far as you know, the last living person on Earth or at least in your area. Starting out with a pistol, you must navigate the undead infested cityscape. The story progresses from there. And there is a story. I would presume to ruin it for you.

Controls:

Standard d-pad on the left hand side of the screen. The right hand of the side of the screen controls the view but is not limited to a d-pad. This was a wise move. To throw a grenade you simple tap the location you want it to land. The problem is that sometimes by swiping the screen you can accidentally throw grenade. Still, this isn't a game changer, just a petty annoyance. On the top right is the weapon and ammo indicator. You can change weapons and reload ammo by tapping the related image. The upper left shows health, grenade counter and pause button. The bottom left is the sprint button. Considering the game is not optimized for controllers (yet...) it is a well designed interface. The reason for the yet is because it seems that the game is well supported and very well designed.

Game Play:

I love it! The game is third person high-up prospective. The system for firing is simple. You have a flashlight. You aim the beam at your target and you fire. You move, you run, you shoot, you throw grenade. You swear as you get cornered. You pray when you see a horde coming at you. There are objectives you have to achieve. This is part of how the story moves on. You pick up weapons as you go. You can run out of ammo. By picking up a "gun" image you gain more ammo. Same goes for grenades.

The zombies are well done. There are slow and fast ones. There are VERY fast as well. There are also hard to kill ones and the type of zombies that throw projectiles. All in all, a good balance. Since there are no difficulty modes the game is rather difficult at times.

Guns are good as well. A pistol with infinite ammunition is the only one that does not run out. Then a submichine gun, shotgun, sniper rifle and a typical battle rifle. Combined with the grenades, it is a good balance of weapons.

Graphics:

Not the top of the line, but it is well done. Honestly, I think it does well enough and actually adds to the game play. The darkness combined with the flashlight beam makes it wonderful.

Maturity Rating:

This game is rated as PG-16 (
Parental Guidance for ages under 16). The level of graphic violence merits this rating. There is no mature language, just gun use and some gore. There is no sexual contant.

Final Assessment:

In the end I give this game 2 2/3 out of 3 Triforce. At $5.99 in the Google Play store, this game is quite amazing. You can also purchase the game from the Amazon Appstore for the same price. The iOS version is $2.99 and works for both iPhone and iPad. I do advise you play it on a tablet for best experience, but it could also be played nicely on a large phone's screens. I do suggest you be running a dual core processor at least. This will ensure the game play remains zippy. I don't give it a full 3 out of 3 because of the one annoyance of the grenade mishaps. Still, perhaps that is due to my sausage fingers. In either case, if running from and at zombies while shooting them, this is the game for you my friend.

Monday, June 4, 2012

The Ingress

Zombies! Either you love them or hate them. They've been around for a while, but the zombie genre has really been growing in the last decade. So it was a real please to find a monetized zombie game called BloodLand popping up in the Google Play Store. Now this made my day! Nothing like blowing off a little steam by blasting the un out of the undead. So this free little gem gets its justice and time in the Triforce lime light.

A Tale to Be Told?

The game is basic in its story. You're the last person alive so far as you know. The undead are moaning for your flesh and you must survive. Armed with your boom sticks you must fend off the walking dead or die trying. Nothing much beyond that.

Graphics

The game play is a high third-person prospective. Much like Dungeon Siege or Diablo series, you see things from high up and at an angle. This can limit your viability on walkers that lurk behind items. That being said, the graphics aren't half bad. They aren't extremely detailed, but I'm not complaining. Based off of the credits this appears to be a game that wasn't designed by a big company but rather a few guys in a home office. And honestly, the graphics isn't really the reason to play the game. Those are just a bonus.

Controls

This game has the typical touch screen d-pad setup. Left for movement, right for aiming. The thing that makes the right d-pad different is it also controls firing. Rather than auto fire or a trigger button you have to drag the d-pad to an extreme direction to get your character to shoot. This makes for very quick finger fatigue. I hooked up my PS3 remote in hopes this would solve the problem but no joy. The game does not support controllers. Playing on the Transformer Prime wasn't so bad, but on a phone screen it was a bit cramped. Looking at reviews in the Google Play Store there were a lot of people who complained about the fire controls not being responsive. I think this has more to do with how it is set up more than anything. The d-pads are both static. Unlike other d-pads that are based on where you place your finger, either you place your finger on the required d-pad or not. If the developers were to ask how to solve this I would suggest making it so the movement d-pad is the left half of the screen and the aim/view d-pad is the right side with a fire button on that part of the screen. The d-pad setup in my mind is one of the biggest minuses to this game.

Game Play

Likes:

The zombies! There isn't just one type. You have shufflers, you have walkers, fast walkers, runners, jumpers and some sort that throws glowing ball things. The variety really does the game a lot of justice!

The environments are varied as well. The buildings, barriers and cars can help and hinder both you and the undead alike.

The weapons are varied as well. There is a 9mm, 7.62 (I can only assume they mean 7.62x39mm since it looks like an AK-47), a flame thrower, 12 gauge and .338. On top of this there is a melee attack you can use if you need to. I would suggest holding the melee for when you are swarmed and have no other choice though. All have their positives and negatives, but the balance of what each weapon can do is well though out. They all require reloading and that is done automatically. I actually like this feature because it adds a sense of realism to the game play.

The power up crates. It would be better to call them traps really, but these big crates unleash different types of destruction on zombies close to it. They are activated by moving your character into them. They are nice to have for when you are getting swarmed.

Dislikes:

How I feel about the
character movement.

The character's movements seem sluggish. Almost like he is running in water. I think this may be due to the exaggerated movements of the character, but either way it throws me off even after playing it for a while.

Stupid weapon box!

The weapons swapping system is the strangest I have ever seen. Rather than giving you the option to collect the weapons and swap between then when you want it works like this. If you walk over a weapons box you lose the previous weapon. But there is no way you can tell what is in the weapons box so if you would rather keep the 12 gauge but you get the flame thrower you are stuck with it until another box is dropped when you kill a zombie. It's annoying to the max. I wouldn't care if you only started with one weapon each level but at least let me switch to the weapon I feel I need. Even if they only allowed me to carry two weapons, it would be preferable to the current set up. Still, this does make game play more interesting, all be it frustrating.

Money? You earn it with kills and power up boxes. Why? You don't need money if your the last one alive and there is nothing I can use it for. There wasn't any store of option to spend it. I don't see the point of it.

Game Modes

You have the option of playing Quests, Rush and Survive. You can play how you want when you want.

Maturity Rating:

This game is rated as PG-13 (
Parental Guidance for ages under 13). It contains gun use and violence. The level of gore is very minimal. There is no mature language or sexual content.

Egress

As previously mentioned, the Android version of the game is free through the Google Play Store. The iOS version of the game is free through iTunes. If dealing with the odd advertisement is something you just can't handle then you can spend $1.25 to remove the adds or spend $1.99 to remove the adds and unlock some other features. Both are in app purchases so you don't loose any of your progress by having to download a premium version. Either way you have the opportunity to try this game for free before you have to drop any of your hard earned cash on it.

Looking at the game as it exists at this moment I can't help but give it 1 2/3 our of 3 Triforce. The game is a great one, but there are some things that are lacking in it. When it is updated I may revisit it to see if these issues are resolved, but until then the rating stands. That being said, all you risk in playing the game is time so give it a shot. You may just enjoy putting the dead in their place. Until next time, this is Justice signing off.